Architecture internship at Mangado & Asociados SL studio in Pamplona, Spain.

After graduating from  my bachelors studies I knew that the masters degree will have to wait. I needed a break year to get mythoughts together. I thought that Partners for value could provide me with a great opportunity to get some

international experience and to see some new places at the same time. I decided to go to a country that I have

never visited before – Spain was at the top of the list.

I applied to this studio as I was familiar with their work beforehand. I even used one of their projects as an

analogue for the pre-design stage of my final work in the university. Another reason why I chose this international

studio was because they are always participating in international architecture competitions, and I was longing for

challenges like that. So it seemed, that this was exactly what I needed.

And indeed I was right. In just four short months I had an opportunity to do work for eight different competitions

and projects in Czech Republic, Iran, Germany, France and Spain. Kampus Albertov competition in Prague was quite

special to me as it was the very first one that I have worked on just after arriving. It became even more special just

a few weeks ago when we found out that this project got selected for the second phase of the competition. It was

among six finalists, so the hard work has paid off.

The studio has a wonderful team, so we have always delivered good work and we’ve never missed a deadline. My

main tasks in the studio were to make 3d models or to draw architectural or technical plans. I had lots of

experience doing just that, so the work itself was not that difficult. The hard part was the sheer amount of work

and the everlasting lack of time to do it with frequent deadlines breathing down your neck. My brain was firing up

like never before. Another highlight of my time here, was a competition project that was also selected for the final

stage – New Rosa Luxemburg headquarters in Berlin. During the final stage of this competition we had to adapt the

building to the German law and requirements. So we had to revise the whole project and in some areas basically

even start over. For this we had an opportunity to collaborate with a huge, international engineering company Buro

Happold.

During my short internship I have learned so much from my colleagues and my boss. I acquired many new skills that

will help me out in my future career, but most importantly – I drastically improved my critical thinking and time

management skills.

I mentioned work skills as the most important thing, but now that I think about it – the most important thing for

this internship was not even a thing – it was people. People, that I can now call my dear friends.

*****

Believe it or not, one of the greatest regrets that a lot of people share – is that they did not travel enough (when

they had the chance). So erasmus programme provides you with a great opportunity to see new places and to grow

both as travelers and as upcoming professionals, don’t miss it!

You never know how different experiences might affect your life both in the short and long term. Like a relaxed

stroll through the historic center of a never before visited town or a walk through the ruins of an ancient

stronghold might unexpectedly come up in your memory years from now and give you a solution for a difficult

problem that you might have faced.

Now if you don’t believe me – go and see for yourselves!

Tomas Marcinkevičius

VGTU Architecture Faculty graduate